This show I host Nelson, British Columbia based deejay, producer, and rabblerouser The SugarBear. Robert E. Livingood, also known as The SugarBear, was made in Detroit in the 1970s. Soul music and rebellious Rock & Roll were everywhere. Back then even the lullabies were sung to the tune of Barry White and the MC5 so his ear was trained accordingly. His mother was an opera singer who ended up working in an auto factory, his sister was the token white girl in a disco band, and his brother in law partied heavily with Iggy. By age 10, he had already seen KISS on their Destroyer tour and was a member of The Midnight Funk Association, presided over by legendary Detroit DJ, The Electrifying Mojo. As a teenager he started promoting music at the 404 Willis, an infamous underground after hours collective space in Detroit’s rough and radical Cass Corridor neighborhood. Robert also ran the Hopscotch record label and watched techno being born from the filthy kitchen window of the Majestic Theater where he passed falafels and hummus to hungry first wave ravers. He left Detroit in the 90s, lived on the west coast (San Francisco, Oakland, Olympia), fell in love with the wild, became a Grizzly Bear biologist, moved to Alaska, built a cabin, hunted and gathered, started writing books, then began throwing parties in the land of the midnight sun. Though he gave up science to become a full time writer and sound artist, he still spends considerable time every year in close proximity to grizzlies. When he returns from these far out landscapes he plays dance music. His favorite parties are set in unorthodox places–barns, basements, garages, riverbanks, and on isolated patches of tundra. He loves taking part in moments where something spontaneous and unexpected occurs–like re-claiming a busy intersection with a renegade sound system, then getting down in the middle of the street with a bunch of glitter splattered freaks during rush hour. Following in the footsteps of Mojo, the music he spins is unbound by style or era. He loves playing long sets (five hours in he’s just getting started) where he can explore the territories of soul, funk, jazz, psychedelia, house, new wave, punk, garage rock, experimental, hip hop, and disco. He’ll play where he’s called–whether international music festivals like Shambhala, Basscoast, and Burning Man, or even at a yard sale on the side of the highway where Mojitos are served in Mason jars. In addition to all of this, The SugarBear produces dance music, as well as analog, electronic neo-psychedelic soundscapes under the name Divination and Strategy.

This episode I host dee-jay Mark Penner, alias Cyclist. From a rapturous dawn, Cyclist, was knee-deep in disco. After a gold star cajoling turn in the DFA remix competition for The Rapture‘s “How Deep Is Your Love” (alongside fellow Canuk Pat Lok), Cyclist has gone from strength to strength; a successful all-disco residency with A Digital Needle at Toronto’s Beam Me Up has seen the eclectic dee-jay share the spotlight with a whole slew of today’s top disco mavens, bolster his production repertoire by working with some of the worlds top producers, as well as his notable work with vocalist Maiko Watson – a collaboration which has resulted in over a hundred thousand plays on SoundCloud.

Since embarking on his first international tour – an excursion which included stops in Mexico, Spain & France – Cyclist has brought his indie-dance fusing brand of boogie funk to the global stage, with a full slate of North American & European dates to follow in 2014. His own label, MANI/PEDI Records with RAC’s Karl Kling, launched late 2013 to intercontinental kudos, with a deluge of dancefloor-oriented releases to transpire in the year to come.

When not occupied by establishing Beam Me Up as Canada’s premier disco party, Cyclist is consumed by his passion for analogue synths and digging for records – an obsession which, while steeped in the past, influences a sound that is very much modern – a juxtaposition that makes Cyclist the obsessive, disco-discerning tastemaker he is.

England seems to be the place to be for Disco-editors. Actually some of the most talented of those are situated there. Chuggin’ Edits is from Essex near London and yes – he’s a Disco-connaisseur. And yes, his Ain’t No Big Thing exclusive mix is packed with massive tunes from well-known artists. If you haven’t been familiar with the man in charge, his SoundCloud-profile offers you an immense collection of his art and everyone should be able to pic a couple of favorites amongst those.

Mr Chugg started the edit game in the summer of 2014 and his first track ever to be released on the Deep Sense label – 1st Voyage Compilation ( A Tribe Called Quest – Bonita applebum )became the best seller. He’s also on the new Deep Sense-sampler, their second installment, so there’s certainly a lot more to be expected from the talented guy in the near future. Chuggin is also a regular soldier for the Spa In Disco Label.